Change of Plan

I was awakened shortly before dawn by a loud grating, scraping sound outside the hotel window. Even though I live in semi-tropical New Orleans, I knew immediately what it was. Snow plows. This was a bad sign. I peeked out the window and could see snow blowing everywhere. Winds were gusting at 40-50 mph. My motivation to walk over to the gym was sinking fast and the attractiveness of a cup of coffee at the local Starbucks was looking better and better. A couple of hours later, we slid over to The Daughter's place near campus (that's the view of her street to the right), and found out that the meet had been postponed until, tentatively, Sunday. After a couple of hours on the phone, The Wife got the rental car extended an extra day at the same rate, and changed our return flight to Monday for an additional fee of around $110, so we'll just camp out at The Daughter's place Sunday night after the meet so save the extra hotel night. The University of Illinois-Chicago team couldn't get here this morning because of the weather. Rumor has it that the police had closed a lot of roads to large vehicles because of the wind and limited visibility.


By afternoon the weather had improved tremendously, with temperaturesup into the 20s, although tonight we're expecting a low of -1F. I was surprised to see quite a few cyclists trying to negotiate the streets, which were covered with a layer of ice, snow and slush. The girl in the picture to the left didn't make it down that hill without putting a foot on the ground, by the way. The Wife and I took a walk along the Iowa River just before dusk and spotted a larte American Eagle fishing along the River. He dove once on a fish, but came up empty-handed. Anyway, I've decided today will be a rest day!! Perhaps tomorrow morning I will summon up the determination I need to go over to the gym and torture myself on the exercise bike.

We shall see. The meet will be at 2 p.m., if all goes as planned, although they will probably be short a couple of judges. So this little excursion will end up costing a bit more than planned, plus an extra missed training day. C'est la vie!